BY NADINE WOJAKOVSKI
VISITORS TO Trafalgar Square this weekend are in for a musical treat. Singers, including Beverley Knight, Matt Cardle and Pixie Lott will be performing free. There will be performances from hit shows including Wicked, The Lion King and Kinky Boots. The annual West End Live event is a showcase for London’s top entertainment, and it’s all the brainchild of a Tory councillor.
Robert Davis dreamed up the event in 2005 when there were fears that the new Westfield shopping centre would draw people away from the attractions of central London. He still produces it, raising £450,000 in sponsorship every year. In 2005, only five shows took part. This year there will be 28.
“I say all politicians are failed actors,” says Davis, who enjoyed spending the day dressed up as Les Miserables’s Monsieur Thenardier for London’s New Year’s Day Parade (below). But this is an especially enjoyable time of year. As well as West End Live, he is chairman of Regents Park Open Air Theatre. Last month, he attended the premiere of an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s book Running Wild, the first production of the 2016 summer season.
An ardent theatre lover since his early childhood, growing up in Hampstead Garden Suburb, Davis, 58, is also responsible for the creation of two theatres, the St James Theatre and the soon to be opened Nimax Theatre on Charing Cross Road.
Entertainment is just a small part of his work as the longest serving member of Westminster council. Besides being deputy leader, he is now also cabinet member for the built environment with special responsibility for planning, mayoral and special events. He’s also a deputy lieutenant of Greater London and chairman of the London Mayors’ Association.
Davis, a member of the West London Reform Synagogue, admits that his busy working life is a good distraction from the loss of his partner, Sir Simon Milton, who was deputy mayor of London. Sir Simon died five years ago from pneumonia following a bone marrow transplant. This was particularly difficult as it followed the death of Davis’s sister from cancer the previous year. Now, his In costume: Robert Davis